Sudan protesters missing since deadly June massacre have been found, including five dead, say activists

Sudanese protest leaders said on Monday that 15 people missing since the bloody dispersal of a Khartoum protest camp in June have been found, five of them dead.

Mohammed Nagy al-Assam, a leading figure in the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA), announced the findings in a press conference in the Sudanese capital in front of local activists demanding justice and answers over the brutal massacre.

At least 127 people were killed during the dispersal of a weeks-long sit-in in front of the military General Command in Khartoum on June 3, according to the Central Committee for Sudanese Doctors (CCSD). 

An investigation by the SPA has increased that figure to an estimated 132 people dead after paramilitary forces raided the sit-in site, allegedly beating, raping and killing protesters.

Of 20 people assumed missing since the June 3 attack, 10 people have since been found alive and five people have been found dead, Assam said according to The Sudan Tribune.

Several of them have been "suffering from psychological difficulties", he added.

Sudanese authorities have previously claimed that 24 protesters have gone missing since demonstrations erupted in December last year.

The SPA, a leading organiser of protests since their beginning, has insisted the figure is much higher.

Protesters and human rights groups pin the blame for the massacre on the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), an officialised offshoot of the Janjaweed militias accused of war crimes in the Darfur conflict.

Human Rights Watch last month said the brutal massacre was planned and "could amount to crimes against humanity".

Mohammad Hamdan Daglo, better known by his nickname Hemedti, leads the RSF - often known by Sudanese as simply the Janjaweed - and is now a member of the joint civilian-military sovereign council that superseded military rule. 

Hemedti has denied ordering the attack on demonstrators.

A probe by the military earlier this year denied RSF responsibility for the sit-in massacre and charged just seven members of the paramilitary force with killing protesters, alleging they had disobeyed orders as part of a planned dispersal of part of the sit-in.

A separate investigation, prompted by public anger against the military probe, has since been launched by Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok. It is expected to release its report in later this month.

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